First News: $2.5 million in new computers for Santa Fe public schools. (listen)

(2012-07-30)

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SANTA FE(KSFR) -
Some Santa Fe school children will be seeing brand new computers in the coming school year. The district is planning to spend nearly $2.5 million on new desktop and laptop Apple computers as well as Apple TVs. The equipment is part of a plan to improve math skills. The computers will be set up in classrooms and laboratories at the district's three high schools as well as at two elementary schools. School district reports show that just a third of eighth grade students are proficient at math.

Santa Fe has two speed camera vehicles now but a third one is coming along. The New Mexican reports that the SUV is being outfitted now at the headquarters of Redflex Traffic Systems in Arizona. City hall says the two vehicles in service now have resulted in more than 4,000 speeding citations this year, a rate that could exceed the number for all of 2011. A citation from a speed van typically costs $100.

New Mexicans will get the chance to attend public hearings later in August on a possible new plutonium project for the Los Alamos national lab. The energy department says Los Alamos is being considered for a new project that would see workers dismantle old nuclear warheads. The government spent hundreds of millions of dollars on trying to build a facility in South Carolina for the work, before the project failed. The plan is to turn the old plutonium into stock for nuclear power plant fuel.

By today at the latest, Santa Clara Pueblo should have all of an $11 million federal assistance relief grant. The monies will go toward correcting damages inflicted by heavy rains pushing debris from last year's Las Conchas Fire into pueblo waterways. Sediments must now be removed from within the boundaries of the Pueblo. Earlier this month, Santa Clara Pueblo requested $31 million for flood mitigation and restoration efforts.The FEMA grant is being disbursed to the Pueblo by State of New Mexico administrative agents.

A re-definition of panhandling is on the agenda for tonight's meeting of Santa Fe's Finance Committee. Those who hold signs near roads and on medians could be included, even without verbally soliciting for money. The New Mexico ACLU has previously said the content of panhandling speech is constitutionally protected and the city could potentially face a legal challenge to restrictions. Since 2010, a city ordinance has banned people from approaching cars to ask for money and also prohibits asking pedestrians for money in downtown business areas after dark. The matter is headed to full city council on September 12th.